HUNTER students studying Biology for their Higher School Certificate were able to see the real world relevance of their Infectious Diseases module perhaps more than any previous cohort.
Belmont High students Lachlan Willmot, Madison Pounder, Thomas MacLeod and Lucy Foster were asked an 18 mark question about the module - relating to rabies - during their two-part paper on Wednesday.
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"We did not have to go over as much things like quarantine and hygiene because it was embedded in our heads all year," Madison said.
"Learning about how viruses are spread, the differences between epidemic and pandemic, it was useful to understand what was happening in the world at that moment," Lucy said. "We were living what we were studying."
Thomas said he had struggled to remember the difference between incidence and prevalence. "Then my teacher said 'Gladys talks about incidence every day!' and it stuck."
Lachlan said it was "like being on an excursion all year round".
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The students said they had prepared well for the questions and the paper met their expectations, aside from an absence of questions about their least favourite topic, plants.
"The questions were pretty accessible, a lot of information was given to you and so there were graphs and diagrams to refer back to in your answer," Lucy said.
Madison agreed. "I feel a lot of people would have been able to answer the questions, but if you had extra knowledge from your study or could add examples, that's what would push you into the higher bands," she said.
All said they were glad they had prepared for the move towards more skill based questions, which required them to be able to interpret or analyse stimulus and apply their knowledge, instead of rote learning content.
They said the multiple choice was mostly straight forward, although Lachlan said he was stumped by one about pregnancy hormones - "stay away from them" - but they were glad they had time to go back to change some answers.
The second section of "decent" short answer questions included the 18 mark question about rabies, split into parts about transmission, proving it is not cellular, how it reproduces and how to manage it.
"I looked at one diagram and thought 'What does that mean?' but I worked it out and it was satisfying," Thomas said.
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